Roses in the sun

Last weekend saw Lancashire host Yorkshire in the rugby union County Championship for the Bill Beaumont Cup. The game was at Fylde: as 11 of the starting XV play there, it made sense. It is easy to get to, and this year the Blackpool South train had a couple of extra wagons, er, I mean carriages. Timetable changes made for a less convenient arrival time, but Fylde's excellent catering meant I could have lunch when I got there. I feel when attending rugby union that using the right cutlery matters, so the question is, should one eat the chilli with a fork or a spoon? A savoury dish suggests the former, but the latter will get the last of the rice from the polystyrene dish.

The Met Office app promised sunny intervals: the weather turned out better, with almost continuous sun.

Results earlier in the competition meant that the winner would go through to the final.

There was a good crowd, drawn by the weather and plenty of publicity. Oddly, Lancashire seemed only to start publicising the competition in earnest for the second game, against Durham: the first, at Chester, seemed very low key.

I took up position on the stand side, towards the end Lancashire were attacking, where I could look out from the shade. The hedge would have fallen foul of football ground grading authorities, who like the ground perimeter fence (they are not keen on hedges) to prevent viewing the game from outside the ground, and there were definite gaps. Not that I was planning to take pictures from the pavement.

These fixtures are robust affairs.

Penalty scores play a greater part in rugby union than in football or rugby league. Some attribute this to the points available for a penalty kick and a converted try. The points available may encourage a team to kick, but some suggest the points for a converted try may give an incentive to risk an infringement, sacrificing three points rather than a possible seven. A penalty try can also be given where an infringement prevents a try being scored. Yorkshire opened the scoring in this manner: Lancashire responded with a penalty kicked by Christopher Johnson.

In a game like this, there is always the risk of injury, and Chris was replaced shortly afterwards by Steve Collins.

A try from an individual run is good for a picture, this from Jordan Dorrington took Lancashire ahead just before half time.

I decided to stay put after half time, as it was the quietest part of the ground. With Lancashire, as is often the case, having the better of both possession and territory for the second half, my results were not as good as in the first, although I was close to some moves being built out of defence.

Further tries from Ryan de la Harpe and Chris Briers and another from Jordan Dorrington gave Lancashire a commanding lead. Jordan Dorrington was subsequently selected for the England Counties squad to tour Romania.

The game continued to keep the physios busy. Spare a thought for Yorkshire's replacement scrum half, Isaac Green, seen here watching Ryan de la Harpe putting the ball in to a scrum - within three or four minutes of coming on, he had to leave the field after an injury.

Lancashire's win took them to their seventh successive final. I did not realise I had been following the competition for that long: it seemed like only a couple of years ago seeing Yorkshire go through to the final at Harrogate and sitting opposite Alex Davies and James Doherty on the train back to Leeds - Alex and James went on to have successful careers at London Welsh and Cornish Pirates respectively.

After the game, I walked along the coast to Lytham. I say "coast", I think there was water between me and Southport. On arrival, I adjourned to the Taps. On an almost summer day, the Thistly Cross Whisky Cask Cider caught my eye. After this, the National Rail app suggested the train back to Preston left Blackpool South on time, but, on a single line branch, there are no signals to track progress, so I was twiddling my thumbs for 20 minutes and missed my connection. Northern Rail's Twitter feed was busy.

I, on the other hand, planned to catch a train, an actual train

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.

Final score: Lancashire 29 (T Dorrington 2, de la Harpe, Briers; C Collins 3; P Johnson) Yorkshire 14

Changeable weather

On a train towards Blackpool all human life is there. On this occasion, the carriage on my little Pacer train was populated in large part by two weekend parties. I would say the noise was ear splitting, but it was mainly going straight through my skull without really troubling my ears at all.

Fylde RUFC, who were hosting Lancashire's game against Northumberland in the County Championship for the Bill Beaumont Cup, have some pictures on display of Mr Beaumont playing for Fylde, Lancashire and England. The conclusion to be drawn from them is that there was a lot more mud back then then. Pitch maintenance and the science of growing grass have improved significantly in the last few years, although it has not addressed the amount of water falling from the sky. At the risk of upsetting the Fylde Tourist Board, it seems to rain whenever I am there, not to mention the wind blowing off the sea. Fortunately the worst rain was before the start of the game, when I could shelter in the bar. Well, it was fortunate for me, not for the players warming up in it.

In the last few years, Lancashire have maintained a stable core to the team, not always easy in a competition over four weeks in May. There is significant input from our hosts, combined with young players making their way up. As our game was taking place, two of my favourite former players were playing against each other in the Championship Play Off Semi Final, James Doherty with Leeds Carnegie and Alex Davies with London Welsh.

Northumberland seemed to have warmed up better, as they took the lead before Lancashire seemed to fully get going.

As the rain eased off, to be replaced by the wind, the home side soon started to get things together. Captain Chris Johnson has been useful with his feet in these games for a few seasons, kicking most of Lancashire's conversions and penalties ...

 ... today also kicking in open play ...

... before gathering the ball to put it down for a try.

The rain started again late in the first half, which coincided with another spell of Northumberland pressure, with their scrum half, Tom Banks, giving his team 14 points with two tries he converted himself.

I am not sure what the Lancashire coaches said at half time, but the team simply overpowered the opposition in the second half, and made good use of substitutions - many of the substitutes come from Fylde, so are used to playing together, rather than just being second choices for their position who might not gel when they come on.

Even more rain did not help the visitors.

The sun came out for the end of the game, just as the announcer forgot the visitors' name, referring to substitutions for Northumbria, to the muttered consternation of the gentlemen in Northumberland blazers standing behind me. For Lancashire Steve Collins came on for Chris Johnson who had earned a rest before next week's game against Yorkshire.

Fylde were keen for people to continue to enjoy the bar and catering facilities after the game, so I stayed for a pie - the pastry tasted as though it involved suet, unfortunately not often used in a baked pie. After that, it was off to Taps in Lytham, where I spotted a few more of the crowd enjoying their excellent selection of ales.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.

Final score: Lancashire 57 (T - Riley, Spragg 2, Johnson 3, Taylor, Briers, Brennand; C - Johnson 4, Collins 2); Northumberland 19

Coming up Roses

There are usually two or three occasions during the season when my local football is postponed, but pitches are still playable for rugby union. That has not been the case this season, Prescot Cables have been fortunate that, on a few occasions when weather was bad to the west of the Pennines, we were away collecting points in Yorkshire. On other occasions, pitches were frozen or under a couple of feet of melting snow, which made them unplayable for any game.

The extension of the EvoStik League season meant that I also missed the first game of the County Championship for the Bill Beaumont Cup, although as Lancashire played Durham at Hartlepool, I may have missed it anyway: I do not have the commitment to the Lancashire cause that takes me on long distance trips with Prescot. Granted, last year's trip to Scarborough was long distance, but that included a couple of days in a seaside resort.

I nearly missed Lancashire's home game against Yorkshire at Fylde RUFC too. My train was delayed by the failure of a track circuit in the Huyton area. I was delayed for an hour on the first day after the engineering works that put it in about 4 years ago, and it has been causing bother when I go that way ever since. A gentleman sitting opposite me wearing a rugby shirt and bearing a ticket to the same destination decided to call it a day and headed to the ticket office for a refund. I decided to stay put, as, even if I was on the next train from Preston, and therefore an hour late, I would still catch the last 10 minutes of the first half, and it was only £5 to get in.

I arrived to find a scrum being reset, which was to be something of a theme for the afternoon. Both sides seemed to be infringing, with a number of scrums ending up going round in a circle.

The referee inspects the forming scrum

As the gentleman in the entrance booth looked like he had just counted his takings, and I only had the right change for admission, not for a programme, I did not get a team list. There are substantial changes in the teams from one season to the next, complicated by a couple of leagues having extended their seasons, meaning some players missed the first game being still needed by their clubs. I recognised about half the players, at least by sight, and in some cases by name, from last year.

Ryan de la Harpe

The weather was drier than I was expecting, although the wind was coming off the sea, so I was having bother seeing at times, as it was making my eyes water, a problem I encounter less than one might suppose.

Watching the game felt as though it was one scrum after another, which I am sure makes for a good game for those participating, and for former players with an in depth knowledge of the game, but less of a spectacle for the less trained eye. However, looking at the photos later, there was plenty of flowing action to capture.

When I see a good individual try in either code of rugby, I always get an ear worm of the rugby league commentator (and former union and league international) Ray French MBE announcing "a magNIficent try". We were treated to one such from Christopher Johnson. Here, he is starting his run (the line in the background is the Lancashire 22)...

... on the way ...

... and avoiding the last of the opposition.

He converted it too.

As someone more used to football, I never get used to what happens in rugby when time is up. In football, the referee ends the game regardless of what is happening, most referees are not unwise enough to blow the whistle when the ball is in mid air heading towards goal. In rugby, play continues until the ball next goes out of play. This was the first year the County Championship league stage has used bonus points (4 points for a win, 2 for a draw, with bonus points for scoring 4 tries and for losing by less than 7 points). With the score at 40 minutes at 35-25 to Lancashire, Yorkshire continued to press forward for the try that would secure a losing bonus point, so play continued for three and a half minutes until Lancashire gained possession and put the ball out of play.

The sides prepare for another scrum

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.